2023-09-12 04:15:00
When the diagnosis came, Françoise (the first name has been changed) expected everything: to have radiotherapy, chemo, to be operated on… But “certainly not” to be vaccinated once morest the tumor which, following being attacked on her ovaries, boomeranged back into her chest. “For me, vaccination was not part of cancer treatments! » she sums up. However, every six weeks, an injection is lodged in one of his arms in order to keep the crab at bay.
This sixty-year-old from central France is in fact part of a unique clinical trial. Currently being conducted on around a hundred patients, it aims to test the effectiveness of a vaccine combined with immunotherapy in the recurrence of ovarian cancer, a disease that is particularly difficult to treat and which will affect more than 5,300 people this year. women. “It’s a very recent study, we are the guinea pigs… or rather the volunteer patients,” Françoise self-corrects. She did not hesitate, “for my family, for my friends, and for me”…
Protein injection to stimulate the immune system
Seven years ago, illness suddenly invaded the life of this business consulting professional. “Something weird”, persistent stomach pain, intense fatigue, a waistline that is melting for no reason. And a scanner which reveals what she calls “the extent of the damage”, in the ovaries, the uterus, part of the intestine. As an emergency, this mother begins chemo and, on the advice of her doctor, goes to Gustave-Roussy, in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), an expert center for the disease. She underwent successful surgery there, but her situation remains fragile, as they say in the jargon. So Françoise integrated a first innovative protocol which seemed to work. His body is better, the 10 kg lost resurface, thanks to dishes with crème fraîche concocted by his companion. Morale also returns, lulled by life-saving walks in the countryside.
But then, two years ago, a suspicious lymph node reappeared, then several. Doctors call it metastases, she sticks to “relapse”. New operation, new chemo and therefore, since March, this new protocol, called Tedova. It consists of combining immunotherapy and a vaccine – Tedopi – which is already showing encouraging signs once morest lung cancer.
“Administered alone, immunotherapy works poorly once morest ovarian cancers which have the particularity of going under the radar of the immune system,” explains Dr. Alexandra Leary, coordinator of the study at Gustave Roussy. The vaccine, which is made up of proteins resembling cancer, aims to stimulate this immune system, to boost it by telling it: But yes, see how we do it. » In short, the vaccine gives instructions to the body in order to make it sensitive to immunotherapy. Teamwork for the benefit of patients, hopes the doctor.
For Françoise, it is not yet time to declare victory, but the illness is staying at bay for the moment. “I believe in it, for myself and for others to come,” she confides. After all, it is the advances in science that make me here today, so why not this one? »
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